Stretching Things Out
by HecateA
Summary: Kingsley is worried about his best friend's quietude, but he has no idea what his intervention will reveal. Written for Romance Awareness Day 17: You have a limited number of words, and you can only recharge when you're with your soulmate (when you use up your word count, you die). Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **This prompt was admittedly a weird one but I've been writing these daily challenges for too long to back off now: Written for the 31 Days of Soulmate!AUs, Day 17: You have a limited number of words, and you can only recharge when you're with your soulmate (when you use up your word count, you die). Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **Intervention; canon-compliant thinly-veiled depression.

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Shipping Wars; Hogwarts; Harmony of Souls Eternal; Rays of Blades

**Individual Challenge(s): **Hufflepuff MC; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Friendship); Themes & Things B (Survival); Trope it Up C (Mutual Pining); True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Soulmate!AU

**Bonus challenge(s): **Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; In the Trench; Second Verse (A Long Dog); Chorus (Middle Name)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **Obscure

**Word Count: **694

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Nymphadora Tonks/Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)

**List (Prompt): **Summer Big List (Ocean/sea)

* * *

**Stretching Things Out **

When they Apparated, Tonks immediately realized due to the rocks beneath her feet and the salty air smacking into her face that Kingsley had not brought them to Hogsmeade as expected.

"Where are we?" Tonks asked, spinning around to face him.

"Little fishing village in Ireland," Kingsley said casually.

"Thanks for the warning" Tonks sneered. Immediately, she regretted saying those words—there were four of them, and none of them were worth it…

"That," Kingsley said, pointing at her triumphantly as he saw her recoil into her shell. "_That _is what I brought you here to talk about, so far away that you can tell me whatever it is that's bothering you with absolutely nobody that we know around."

Tonks sighed and bit her lip.

"Tonks," he said, spreading his arms. "Sirius… Sirius is dead. And I know that whatever happened between you and Remus, it hurt the both of you. But I'm worried about _you _now, in a way I can't ignore anymore. I'm not prying, I won't tell anyone. Please… talk to me."

Tonks chewed on her lip again and tugged on her hair anxiously—it was a serious, pseudo-mournful charcoal colour that she ordinarily would have hated, but it was the only thing other than brown that she'd managed to conjure in weeks now. It had felt like a victory this morning, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, but now she realized how sad it must look. She sighed, and drained the colour from her hair.

"_Tonks," _Kingsley sighed.

She looked around them, at the thrashing sea and then at a sandy beach nearby. She waved him over and started walking, picking up a long piece of driftwood as she made her way towards the patch of sand. Her dragonhide boots were enough to keep the saltwater out. When they got to the beach she traced the words down.

_Don't worry._

_Saving my words until Remus comes back._

"Oh, fuck," Kingsley sighed. "Tonks it's… he's your soulmate?"

Tonks nodded.

"It's like that?" Kingsley said. He vaguely recalled the stories—very old stories, mind you—that his grandmother used to tell him, about soulmates who ran out of words and then ran out of breath if they spent too long apart. "You two weren't just fooling around in Grimmauld Place?"

Tonks shook her head. No; no they hadn't been.

"You have to tell Scrimgeour, he'll stop making you give those stupid presentations, then!" Kingsley said.

Tonks shook her head no. Kingsley sighed.

"You absolute stubborn tool…" he said. "Does Remus know?"

Tonks shook her head again.

"Tonks, he wouldn't have taken his mission with the werewolves if he'd known," Kingsley said.

She dug her driftwood into the sand again.

_I don't want him to __have_ _to be here._

_I want him to __want_ _to._

"That's romantic and all," Kingsley said. "But what if you hit your limit and die?"

_I'll make it work. I know I can. _

"For how long do you reckon you can stretch things out?" Kingsley asked. He took the driftwood from her. "No, don't answer that, don't answer that… Tonks, this isn't the kind of secret you should be keeping. Isn't Remus in danger too?"

She reached out for the stick, and he handed it back.

_He knows. He just doesn't believe. If he won't talk to me, I can't help him._

"My gosh," Kingsley sighed. He shook his head. "I think he does believe it, Tonks. He does love you. Honestly. He's just… he's trying not to right now."

_Don't start with me._

"I won't," Kingsley promised. "Tell me what I can do to help?"

_I just need space. _

"Okay. But you should know that I can order for you at restaurants if you write things down on a napkin for me, and maybe even if you don't since I've seen you order coffee and Thai about a thousand times," Kingsley offered.

Tonks bit down on her lip and Kingsley realised that she was actually holding back tears. Then she nodded, and since she looked like she was about to burst Kingsley gathered her in his arms.

"Yeah," he said. He smoothed down her hair. "Yeah, we can do that…"


End file.
